Proclamation 3975—Loyalty Day, 1970

The full meaning of ordinary words is often discovered only when we know their origin. The word "loyal" has its origins in the Latin word for "legal." Ultimately, to be loyal means not only to be faithful to a person or a cause or a nation, but to be lawful as well.

We demonstrate loyalty to our nation, then, not only when we show our love for its ideals, but when we also show respect for its laws. Without those laws, our ideals cannot be reached; without those ideals, our laws are mechanical and lifeless. True loyalty to our country means working together toward justice under the law.

The Congress of the United States, by a joint resolution of July 18, 1958, has designated May 1 of each year as Loyalty Day and requested the President to issue a proclamation inviting the people of the United States to observe such day with appropriate ceremonies.

Now, Therefore, I, Richard Nixon, President of the United States of America, do call upon the people of the United States, and upon all patriotic, civic and educational organizations to observe Friday, May 1, 1970, as Loyalty Day, with appropriate ceremonies in which all of us may join in a reaffirmation of our loyalty to the United States of America.

I also call upon appropriate officials of the government to display the flag of the United States on all government buildings on that day as a manifestation of our loyalty to the Nation which that flag symbolizes.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-sixth day of March, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred seventy and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred ninety-fourth.

RICHARD NIXON